When a caller places a call to a cell phone which is on, the call is normally routed through a base station acting as an access point. If the call fails to reach a called party, the caller generally receives an indication as to whether the called party is on the phone, i.e., whether the phone is busy or not as reflected in a busy signal or multiple unanswered rings. The call, if it is not successfully completed to the called party, may be transferred to voicemail which may replay a pre-recorded message, e.g., a daily message, on the status of the called party, e.g., “I am in the office today”, etc. This information is similar to some “presence” information that may be conveyed in instant messaging. Also, in implementations including versions of the Find Me, Follow Me (FMFM) service concept, known in the art, the caller is given information about the busy status of additional phones, to which the original call may be transferred, as a call is forwarded from one phone to the next in a predefined call transfer sequence.
While existing systems provide some information when a call is not answered or completed, it would be desirable if methods and apparatus were available for a caller to be able to obtain additional “presence-like” information regarding the called party. In particular, it would be advantageous if the calling party could obtain detailed status information regarding the called cellular telephone. For example, if the caller originally places a call to a cellular telephone, it would be desirable for the caller to know if the called cellular telephone is off or on, in addition to whether the called cellular phone is on and busy. In addition, it would be beneficial if called cell phone status information that further qualifies the called cell phone “on” state was available to be provided to the calling party, e.g., “on but currently inaccessible due to system constraints,” “on but inaccessible due to called party decision,” “on but unattended,” “on and busy.”
Methods and apparatus that facilitate the availability of such additional information to the calling party would provide the benefit of increasing the likelihood that a caller will decide to call back or leave a message. By providing the caller with detailed called party cell phone status, the caller would then be able make a more informed decision as to when the next calling attempt should be undertaken. Thus, the calling party may no longer feel that he/she is wasting time by making futile calling attempts and the calling party is less likely to become quickly frustrated and abandon calling attempts. In addition, the calling party may be more likely to be in an agreeable mood and be more pleased with the called party, e.g., when a successful call is completed.
Furthermore, some cellular telephone users, e.g., salespeople, job seekers, lonely individuals, etc., would find it highly desirable and beneficial from a financial and/or social perspective to receive more calls from people who have their cellular telephone numbers. Methods and apparatus that provide feedback on a cellular phone's status to the calling party would tend to encourage the calling party to try again, if currently unsuccessful. Such cellular telephone users would be predisposed to subscribe to such a service provided by a service provider as either an individual add-on service or as part of a wider service package, thus having a tendency to increase revenues and/or customer base for a service provider offering such a feature.